Aligning the Agendas of the Academy and the Community

This article reports on a series of projects in Providence, Rhode Island inspired by the question, “How can we push change in a more sustainable direction?” During the spring of 2011 two teams of students from an upper level engineering course entitled “Sustainable Energy Technology” worked with community based organizations (CBOs) to identify site-specific energy and material use actions. During the falls of 2010 and 2011 joint Brown University School of Engineering Rhode Island School of Design Department of Industrial Design studios addressed the question from a product development perspective, again working in partnership with CBOs. Three iterations of a course called “The Craft of Teaching”, offered by the Brown Education Department, asked a similar question in the context of a local underperforming high school. The projects presented a complex context with many stakeholders and competing agendas. From an educational perspective, we explore whether students gained skill in articulating the rationale for their decision making, whether the experience motivated further study and engagement, and whether any of this transferred to other areas of study. Using information from surveys and interviews, and our experience, we offer some ideas about the environment and the framework necessary to promote these objectives.